eating bones

Hello!!

So on Friday we had chicken drummies for dinner and Bootsie and Monty seemed to want them pretty badly. They kept getting on the table and trying to take them so we decided that we might as well give them two leftover bones with the thought that they would just chew off the meaty scraps. Anyways, they ate the entire thing, including the rather large drumstick bones. Is this bad? After they were done I did find a splinter of bone and it looked kinda sharp.

They seem to be doing fine, afterwards they were sleepy and now they are chasing each other around the apartment. So is it okay for them to eat bones? Do you all feed your kitties bones?

Feeding cats cooked bones is very hazardous, as the bones can splinter with sharp ends that can cause internal injury. As you noticed for yourself. Anyone who wants to feed cats bones should stick with raw bones. Raw bones are fine so long as the cat crunches them well before swallowing.

Keep an eye on them for now and at any sign of anything wrong, please contact your vet. Any loss of appetite, vomitting, bleeding from the rectum, or any other G-I problems may signal an internal injury.

Good luck and keep your fingers crossed. Hopefully everything will be all right.

Agreed - cooked bones can be very, very dangerous. Keep an extremely close eye on them and bring them to the vet at the first sign of a problem.

Cooked boneless meat is fine to give them, as is raw meat with or without bones.

Is it still okay to even feed raw chicken and turkey bones? I have always been told those bones splinter, so they don't do that if they haven't been cooked?

Chicken, Turkey and Pork bones will splinter when they have been cooked, so you shouldn't feed these to your cat. When they are raw, they are fine!

Thanks everyone. I had no idea. Now I'm really worried for them

They seem pretty normal right now. They ate breakfast just fine. Bootsie is now chasing her ball around the house and Monty is trying to get at the milk in my cereal bowl (which I don't give him because he is lactose intolerant).

Last night Monty was merrowling though, but not for a terribly long time. Usually he does this before he uses the box (I had him checked for that and the vet said Monty is one of the healthiest kitties he has ever seen), but last night he was just merrowling randomly. Could this be from the bones? (last night was 2 nights later from when they ate them) They haven't done anything out of the ordinary until then.

But, in general Monty is a talker so maybe he was just feeling talkative and I'm being paranoid. Well, they're chasing each other around the house now. I suppose if they were sick they'd show some sign, right?

When cats are feeling poorly the signs are subtle because they're very good at hiding their discomfort. Be looking for behavior changes, changes in normal routines, and signs of digestive system distress. It'll be a couple days before you can rest easy. But it sounds pretty good so far.

How are your cats today?